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Wednesday, October 21, 2009

::100 Weird Facts About the Human Body::

The human body is an incredibly complex and intricate system, one that still baffles doctors and

researchers on a regular basis despite thousands of years of medical knowledge. As a result, it

shouldn’t be any surprise that even body parts and functions we deal with every day have bizarre or unexpected facts and explanations behind them. From sneezes to fingernail growth, here are 100 weird, wacky, and interesting facts about the human body.

The Brain

The human brain is the most complex and least understood part of the human anatomy. There

may be a lot we don’t know, but here are a few interesting facts that we’ve got covered.

1. Nerve impulses to and from the brain travel as fast as 170 miles per hour. Ever

wonder how you can react so fast to things around you or why that stubbed toe hurts right

away? It’s due to the superspeedy movement of nerve impulses from your brain to the

rest of your body and vice versa, bringing reactions at the speed of a high powered luxury

sports car.

2. The brain operates on the same amount of power as 10watt

light bulb. The cartoon image of a light bulb over your head when a great thought occurs isn’t too far off the mark. Your brain generates as much energy as a small light bulb even when you’re

sleeping.

3. The human brain cell can hold 5 times as much information as the Encyclopedia Britannica. Or any other encyclopedia for that matter. Scientists have yet to settle on a definitive amount, but the storage capacity of the brain in electronic terms is thought to be between 3 or even 1,000 terabytes. The National Archives of Britain, containing over

900 years of history, only takes up 70 terabytes, making your brain’s memory power

pretty darn impressive.

4. Your brain uses 20% of the oxygen that enters your bloodstream. The brain only

makes up about 2% of our body mass, yet consumes more oxygen than any other organ in

the body, making it extremely susceptible to damage related to oxygen deprivation. So

36. Women blink twice as many times as men do. That’s a lot of blinking every day. The

average person, man or woman, blinks about 13 times a minute.

37. A full bladder is roughly the size of a soft ball. No wonder you have to run to bathroom when you feel the call of the wild. The average bladder holds about 400800

cc of fluid but most people will feel the urge to go long before that at 250 to 300 cc.

38. Approximately 75% of human waste is made of water. While we might typically think that urine is the liquid part of human waste products, the truth is that what we consider

solid waste is actually mostly water as well. You should be thankful that most waste is

fairly waterfilled, as drier harder stools are what cause constipation and are much harder

and sometimes painful to pass.

39. Feet have 500,000 sweat glands and can produce more than a pint of sweat a day. With that kind of sweat producing power it’s no wonder that your gym shoes have a

stench that can peel paint. Additionally, men usually have much more active sweat glands

than women.

40. During your lifetime, you will produce enough saliva to fill two swimming pools. Saliva plays an important part in beginning the digestive process and keeping the mouth

lubricated, and your mouth produces quite a bit of it on a daily basis.

41. The average person expels flatulence 14 times each day. Even if you’d like to think

you’re too dignified to pass gas, the reality is that almost everyone will at least a few

times a day. Digestion causes the body to release gases which can be painful if trapped in

the abdomen and not released.

42. Earwax production is necessary for good ear health. While many people find earwax

to be disgusting, it’s actually a very important part of your ear’s defense system. It

protects the delicate inner ear from bacteria, fungus, dirt and even insects. It also cleans

and lubricates the ear canal.

Sex and Reproduction

As taboo as it may be in some places, sex is an important part of human life as a facet of

relationships and the means to reproduce. Here are a few things you might not have known.

43. On any given day, sexual intercourse takes place 120 million times on earth.

Humans are a quickly proliferating species, and with about 4% of the world’s population having

sex on any given day, it’s no wonder that birth rates continue to increase in many places

44. The largest cell in the human body is the female egg and the smallest is the male sperm. While you can’t see skin cells or muscle cells, the ovum is typically large enough

to be seen with the naked eye with a diameter of about a millimeter. The sperm cell, on

the other hand, is tiny, consisting of little more than nucleus.

45. The three things pregnant women dream most of during their first trimester are frogs, worms and potted plants. Pregnancy hormones can cause mood swings, cravings

and many other unexpected changes. Oddly enough, hormones can often affect the types

of dreams women have and their vividness. The most common are these three types, but

many women also dream of water, giving birth or even have violent or sexually charged

dreams.

46. Your teeth start growing 6 months before you are born. While few babies are born

with teeth in place, the teeth that will eventually push through the gums of young children

are formed long before the child even leaves the womb. At 9 to 12 weeks the fetus starts

to form the teeth buds that will turn into baby teeth.

47. Babies are always born with blue eyes. The color of your eyes depends on the genes

you get from your parents, but at birth most babies appear to have blue eyes. The reason

behind this is the pigment melanin. The melanin in a newborn’s eyes often needs time

after birth to be fully deposited or to be darkened by exposure to ultraviolet light, later

revealing the baby’s true eye color.

48. Babies are, pound for pound, stronger than an ox. While a baby certainly couldn’t

pull a covered wagon at its present size, if the child were the size of an oxen it just might

very well be able to. Babies have especially strong and powerful legs for such tiny

creatures, so watch out for those kicks.

49. One out of every 2,000 newborn infants has a tooth when they are born. Nursing

mothers may cringe at this fact. Sometimes the tooth is a regular baby tooth that has

already erupted and sometimes it is an extra tooth that will fall out before the other set of

choppers comes in.

50. A fetus acquires fingerprints at the age of three months. When only a small fraction

of the way through its development, a fetus will have already developed one of the most

unique human traits: fingerprints. At only 613

weeks of development, the whorls of what will be fingerprints have already developed. Oddly enough, those fingerprints will not change throughout the person’s life and will be one of the last things to disappear after

death.

51. Every human spent about half an hour as a single cell. All life has to

begin somewhere, and even the largest humans spent a short part of their lives as a single celled

organism when sperm and egg cells first combine. Shortly afterward, the cells begin

rapidly dividing and begin forming the components of a tiny embryo.

52. Most men have erections every hour to hour and a half during sleep. Most people’s bodies and minds are much more active when they’re sleeping than they think. The

combination of blood circulation and testosterone production can cause erections during

sleep and they’re often a normal and necessary part of REM sleep.

Senses

The primary means by which we interact with the world around us is through our senses. Here

are some interesting facts about these five sensory abilities.

53. After eating too much, your hearing is less sharp. If you’re heading to a concert or a

musical after a big meal you may be doing yourself a disservice. Try eating a smaller

meal if you need to keep your hearing pitch perfect.

54. About one third of the human race has 2020 vision. Glasses and contact wearers are

hardly alone in a world where two thirds of the population have less than perfect vision.

The amount of people with perfect vision decreases further as they age.

55. If saliva cannot dissolve something, you cannot taste it. In order for foods, or anything else, to have a taste, chemicals from the substance must be dissolved by saliva. If you